January 5, 2010: Garden Plans; In the Beginning, Part II

The north garden plan (click on photo to enlarge).

The north garden already has beds filled with strawberries and raspberries.

The indeterminate tomato bed held tomatoes last year, but it's really the only place I have where I can grow these tall varieties. I feel the next best thing to rotating them into another area, would be to grow them in large buckets of "new" potting soil. That also raises them far enough above ground level to plant something on each side of them. I had planned to plant carrots and onions there, but today I'm leaning more toward bush peas. The pea vines would be pulled early enough that the tomato vines, if they should become too unruly, could overtake that space. Last year I had seven tomato plants in the 4'x8'bed, and they were way too crowded. This year I'll only plant four. Hopefully that will be one each of Kellogg's Breakfast, Brandywine, Cherokee Purple and Market Miracle. All other tomatoes will be grown in (nearly bottomless) buckets, placed in other locations.

The circular squash bed will be devoted to butternut squash. Last year I also grew yellow crookneck and zucchini there, but both suffered from powdery mildew. The butternut stayed green and productive, even though the sprinklers watered it overhead.

The "zucchini tower" is a maybe. Last year I had my tipsy pots, supported by a fencepost, filled with flowers in that spot. For this year, I'm considering two large tipsy pots, each with one zucchini plant. These pots have drip tubing for water, and the lawn sprinklers don't soak them, so maybe they could escape the mildew problem.

The round (brown) barrels will hold the dried beans. They are up against a 6' high fence, to which I can attach something for them to climb, and also are not hit by the lawn sprinklers. Last year, I had melons, nasturtiums and two new blueberry bushes planted there. The melons did fine, but grew over one side of my strawberry bed. The blueberry plants, which didn't look terribly healthy to begin with, died. The nasturtiums grew huge and (to me) rather useless.

The northwest corner of the garden will have sunflowers, maybe the beautiful blue morning glory on the fence behind them, and a mixture of annuals in the front. I have seeds of snapdragons and zinnias as a possibility, or maybe wild flowers.

Stefaneener, We ate up all the butternut squash like it was candy, and it left us wanting more! I'm tripling my planting this year.

********Liisa, I scanned a graph paper page and saved it. Then I found all my graphics on line, some by doing an illustration search at http://www.fotosearch.com and a lot from http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/index.html Then I just put it all together using three programs; Paint, Irfanview and an old copy of PhotoDeluxe.

I think you're onto something with those bucket plans. I am tired of my tomatoes taking up all that space in my raised beds! Hubby has at least 4 five-gallon buckets in his shed (that I know of, lol) that I may use for them. He'll be in the Middle East, so he won't need bottoms in the buckets during that timeframe. Wonder how I will "replace" the bottoms before he gets back, hehehehe! I will just put them up against the wire fence and tie the tomatoes up out of the way. Good idea!

Erin, I'm thinking the dogs have learned not to bother the garden too much now, so I'm possibly going to take down the fence but utilize the fence posts to secure the buckets (two large unsecured toms blew over last year in a windstorm). Mr. H won't hear of making the garden larger, but if the buckets sit on the lawn side of the fence posts, I won't lose any room on the garden paths. I don't think he'll notice that extra couple of feet where the grass might just kind of disappear;-) I have 12 buckets. Just sayin'. Love from Granny Tomatohead

Daphne, you know how an addiction goes...it's never enough ;-) Actually, I'd have plenty of room if I'd just grow what I need and not what I want. I could buy one bunch of cilantro for 35-cents, rather than grow 2 square feet of plants. Potatoes are cheap, but I'd love to allow for double the amount I've given room to. My son wants carrots, carrots and more carrots. I have been going through a pint of salsa a week, plus giving to friends and family, Dan is sending more tomato seeds, Kelly and you have sent seeds that I MUST try. Even though I had a lot to harvest last year, I was way short on greens, brassicas and onions. I hear you on the pickles, though. I'll not be making them this year, but I will be making the relish.

Kalena Michele, I love strawberries. And strawberry jam. I had a few plants of wild strawberries once, and they were to die for. The berries were very tiny, though. I never got enough to do anything with, just a few to eat right there in the garden.

The plans for the coming year are exciting to look at and pretty to boot!

I am going with Early Butternut this year for my winter squash selection and going to work it into the corn patch as part of a 3 sisters combo - Sweet Corn, Pinto Beans (which are half runners), and Early Butternut squash. My previous attempts at the 3 sisters combo was less than stellar - but did provide some experience to draw upon about what does not work!